Unlike fingerprint scanners used on smartphones Amazon’s system, code-named “Orville”, won’t require the user to make any physical contact with the surface.

Orville is reportedly accurate to within one ten-thousandth of one per cent, but engineers are aiming to improve this to within one millionth of one per cent before its introduced to the public.

It can also process the payment in 300 milliseconds.

It is understood that Amazon aims to roll out the futuristic new payment technology to a number of its Whole Foods stores by the beginning of 2020, before a roll out across all its physical stores in the US.